Need ideas for teaching 4 year olds about countries?

Question

I have to teach a group of fore year olds about other countries I need to include a pre-reading activity, art activity, science activity, finger play, pre-math activity, circle time activity, gross motor skills activity, fine motor skills activity, music activity, and smack time if you have any suggestions for me pleas post them they will be deeply apreasheated

If you know any nursery songs from other countries if you could post them it would apreasheated as well

Answer 1

Reading activity: there are plenty of pre school books about countries: My Very First Little Book of Other Countries
Art activity: get them paints or crayons and assigned each group with one continent
Science activity: learn about the weather in each continent with big pics off the Internet
Math activity: count how many continents there are/ count how many state there are
Circle time activity: learn about where everyone comes from
Music activity: learn 3 or 4 songs from different countries: www.mamalisa.com/world/
Snack time activity: have foods from all over the world: www.recipesource.com/

Answer 2

Art activity. make a huge board with clear pics of different smiling people. from china, from nigeria, from england, from eskimo's, from bulgarians.... make sure pics have cliché cultural colours people and clothing, building, animals. anything that will say: that's China!!! and that they are positive pics. Then kids will remember.

Nursery rhyme? hm let me see. from holland. both in dutch and a translation as far as I can get. Note that the word "bibelebonse" is a nonsense word but means from another place, or like, one people, a tribe name or a large group like a country.

Op de Bibelebonse berg
wonen Bibelebonse mensen
en die Bibelebonse mensen hebben Bibelebonse kinderen
en die Bibelebonse kinderen eten Bibelebonse pap
met een Bibelebonse lepel
uit een Bibelebonse nap!

On the Bibelebonse mountain
there live Bibelebonse people
and those Bibelebonse people have Bibelebonse children
and those Bibelebonse children eat Bibelebonse (porridge?)
with a Bibelebonse spoon
from a Bibelebonse bowl.

this is litterally. Make it fit in rhyme in your language if you can and substitute bibelebonse if you can with a nice nonsense word of your own....

Good luck!

Answer 3

Well I have an idea for a song. Its nore to remember the countries so it's up to you if you want to use it. I learned this song in 1st grade. They also have hand motions to go with each country. Well it goes...

North America
[*point up]
South America
[*point down]
Europe
[*hold out left hand as if holding a tray]
Asia
[*hold out right hand as if holding a tray]
Africa
[*with both your hands out to the side shake them left to right as if doing a African dance]
Way down theres Astralia
[*jump like a kangaroo]
And don't forget Antartica
[*shiver]

Answer 4

here's a Japanese song I learned as a 4yr old living in Japan. I'ts sung to the tune of "London Bridge" (I know a teensy bit of Japanese, but I have no idea how to spell it, so I'll write it like it sounds):

mushi, mushi, ano nae,
ano nae, ano nae
mushi, mushi, ano nae
aso disca

(in English):
hello, hello, how are you
how are you, how are you
hello, hello, how are you
I'm fine, thank you

mushi, mushi actually translates into a general greeting, but you can replace hello w/good morning in the english version.